Christmas in Japan!

I'm being really good and actually posting about Christmas ON Christmas. Look at me being so proactive.

Just our tent all set up.

Garrett and I decided that we wanted to go camping for Christmas almost as soon as we got to Okinawa. We figured it would be the best idea when we had no family on island, and Daniel was going back to the States anyway. So with a little help from our parents, we were able to buy all of our camping gear. The story behind the stove is that we bought one at the BX, but I soon realized it was a propane fuel hook-up instead of a white fuel or gasoline tank stove. I just wasn't happy with that. So I looked online and found a fuel tank one on Coleman's website that was what I wanted, for just a little more than we paid for the other one even with shipping. But then, we were at a Monkey Man store (it's basically an all-in-one store/ combo of Home Depot and Walmart; It has craftsman things, housewares, sports things, furniture, dollar store like items, etc) and we just happened to be walking down an aisle that had camping gear. I saw a stove that looked just like the one I grew up using while camping with my parents. I was so excited to find one on island! Garrett said we could buy it then and return the one from the BX without having to use it for the camping trip or wait for one to be shipped to us. The unfortunate part is that this stove cost more than if I had even bought one online and paid for shipping as well. But, oh well. It's a Coleman and everyone I've talked to have said they or their parents had one and have had it for 30+ years. I feel confident that it's worth it when Garrett and I want to try to go camping at least once a month. 

About a week or two ago, we found out pets aren't allowed on the premises of Okuma, where we planned to go. It's military run, so even with the curfew in effect we were allowed to go. I looked into keeping Koji at the kennel, we knew that he would not lack attention because the girls there love him, but because of the holiday it was adding up to be almost $160 to keep Koji at the kennel. We do not, nor do we want to, spend so much to keep him in a kennel inside of a kennel (because of his history, that's what they would do). I had an offer from a friend I met on the Kadena Wives page, offer to come and feed Koji and take him out, and we were thinking of doing that, when we remembered a friend of Garrett's from FTAC who is a single guy living in the dorms. We asked Stetler if he would be willing to watch Koji and he said no problem! He would just live at our house while we were gone, and Koji would only be put into his kennel in our house when he left temporarily. 

Saturday we prepped our tin foil dinner(more on their tastiness later), made sure we had all of our essentials together, cleaned the house, and washed the bedding. (Shout out to my mom: DO THIS!! Prepping the tin foil dinners at home is sooo much easier and less hassle than doing it out camping. Everyone prepares their own and wrap them up and label them. Easy first night dinner! Also, we used pre-cut stew meat instead of hamburger... Oh my! I didn't even use ketchup, and you know what a big deal that is. Try it, I don't think you'll regret it.)

This is only about half the available spots.

Garrett and I decided we would leave Sunday afternoon after church and stay until Christmas day. So we loaded up the car, got ice for the cooler, and set out on the expressway. We had to drive about an hour north to reach Okuma. It is a pretty nice place. In peak season (summer) they have all sorts of water activities and lots of cabins, campgrounds, condos, etc. We found the Welcome Center and were told we were the only ones checked in for the adult campground so far. We could choose wherever we wanted to set up. Garrett and I though we would take a spot that was surrounded on three sides by hills, to try and block some of the wind; though the thinking was sound, it did not work the way we had anticipated. The wind was constant and I will just tell you it's a little tricky to put up an 8 man tent with two people in the wind. We got it done, who would we be if we didn't? We put our stuff in the tent and realized we wouldn't be able to use our air mattress because the door to the tent is too small, and the car was too far away; also that we forgot our pillows sitting on the top of the couch ready to be taken to the car. So we rolled up the extra blanket we brought, and used that as a very hard pillow. Garrett was a stud at starting our fire even in the fierce wind. In a few minutes, it was ready to pull to the side and throw on our tin foil dinners! We sat on the ground close to the fire and talked and shared some stories of our past camping trips. When we finally pulled of dinner to check, they were cooked perfectly. Garrett and I agreed we had never tasted a tin foil dinner so good. They were wonderful! Garrett kept raving about them and said he would continue to do so for years; know him, I don't doubt it. 

Don't they both just look amazing? 

Garrett was having fun taking pictures like he was Japanese

After dinner we sat around the fire a little longer. It wasn't exactly cold, just super windy and it brought a chill. The unfortunate part was that as soon as it was dark, we were ready to get into the tent and cuddle down in our sleeping bag. Since it was still early, we just huddled in our sleeping bag and goofed around. We had a friend Wall-E standing guard outside the tent to protect us from whatever was in the jungle surrounding our tent. However, he wasn't very good at protecting us from the wind. I was having severe flashbacks to being 10 or 11 years old and Big Bend National Park and blowing away in our tent... I was mostly fine but then the tent would thrash exceptionally hard and I would jump or whimper. Garrett was so good at comforting me and making me know everything would be okay. I just was still traumatized from the experience so many years ago that even though I knew we would be okay, I just couldn't help it. It was a very long night, to say the least. At one point we woke up and it was only 2 in the morning, but felt like it had to be at least 5. I think it was right around this time that I was freaking out and jumped and pulled the sleeping bag off our head and found the roof of the tent almost right on top of us. It then righted itself and was a the proper height, but it nearly collapsed on us. Oh what fun! 

In the morning we found a few loose stakes and a broken rope from the friction of constantly being pulled back and forth by the wind. We went exploring up the hill and down towards the beach to find beautiful sights just a stone's throw away from us. It was still very windy, but quite a beautiful day. We kept debating about whether we wanted to stay the second night or not. We really didn't sleep well, despite the wind's ferocity, there wasn't much free stuff to do on the grounds, we didn't have other people to interact with or play games with. We weren't even allowed on the beach that was right by our campsite. We finally decided it wasn't worth staying another night. We could go home, watch A White Christmas, drink hot chocolate, play games with Stetler, and be with our puppy! Around noon we took down our tent to discover a broken pole revealing the stretchy string, as well as another pole that was not in tip-top shape. I was not happy to discover that it had broken on our first use! I will be writing to Coleman and trying to get a replacement set of poles. We probably will be returning to Okuma, because it was nice, we just need a smaller tent if we're going to battle the wind again.

I have been on island for three months and the blue sea still amazes me

On the drive home, Garrett called up his family and got to talk to them for a while, which was nice since his work schedule usually makes it so he can't talk to them as often as he wants. When we got home, Stetler told us that Koji had not eaten any food at all. This really didn't surprise me; especially considering his past of not eating much. Unfortunately Stetler didn't stick around to play games with us, but we were able to take a long nap to make up for the lack of sleep the night before. Koji started eating almost as soon as we got home and settled. He was so excited to see us, even after 24 hours. I really hope that we can find a campground that allows dogs if we can ever get out of the curfew that's been set down and will allow us to be off a military installation through the night, other than a place of residence. He would love camping, I just know it. After our nap we put on the soup to cook and started A White Christmas. What a great tradition to watch it every year! It made me miss Shalynna and my Dad especially, since we always would watch it together. Garrett said he could appreciate the movie more now, because he's in the military. After the movie we each opened up on present; I got a rain jacket and Garrett got a PC Joystick for flying games. We finished off the night with hot chocolate, Oreos, and watching the sixth Harry Potter movie. It was a great way to finish off Christmas Eve. 

I forgot to take the picture before we opened Christmas Eve gifts. 

Christmas morning we got up early and opened our presents. We each knew pretty much everything, but we both had one or two that we didn't know. I LOVE the shirt my mom sent me; it has Superman kissing Lois Lane. It's just perfect. Thank you Mama! Garrett wasted no time ripping into the Lord of the Rings: War in the North game we got. Though I totally joined him and it was actually a lot of fun to play. Definitely a good one. We also got a Play Station Move, and a game called Sorcery that Garrett opened as soon as I quit playing LOTR to make food. We had yummy breakfast tacos for brunch. 

The rest of the day was spent just enjoying being home together and playing our new games. We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and we wish we could be there to share in it with you. Merry Christmas! We love you!

Let's Play Catch Up!

Okay, I know I've been terrible at posting this last month or so, but in my defense things got really busy, we got a dog that takes a lot of attention, I got really sick, then craziness with Garrett's work Thanksgiving, then actual Thanksgiving, then our things came in, and here we are! So to recap this month really quickly, before getting on with the real reason for this post.

We started playing soccer on the 18 CES intramural soccer team! Yay! It's been fun. We've shut out two teams, and got an automatic win for the other team not having enough players. I'm the only girl on the team, and I feel grossly inadequate compared to all the others. I can definitely tell I haven't played in a while, but I'm hoping to get back into the swing of it and show off that I actually can play.


Before our hike I'm about to tell you about, Garrett used his ingenuity to get ice into our camel bak when we don't have an ice maker or ice trays. The night before, we went to McDonald's for dinner and took it home to eat. When we were done with our drinks, Garrett said we should fill them up with water and freeze them. So the next morning, we just peeled the paper cups off and slipped the ice into the camel bak!

Isn't it beautiful?!

We went on a hike to a local waterfall. We literally had to hike up the river/creek. It was a lot of fun. It was a cloudy day, but warm enough that out of the water of the falls, you weren't cold. When we made it to the base of the falls, there was a Japanese couple there and they kind of laughed with Daniel, Garrett, and I jumped in the water and were swimming around, as well as going and standing directly under the water. (I wanted to have a somewhat dry shirt for the drive home, so I decided to just swim in my sports bra) But then the woman decided to join us and came in. There were also a couple Americans that came up after we were already there. On our way back down we found another water hole that we didn't stop at on the way up, that we climbed up about 5 or 6 feet on the rocks around and jumped into it. Definitely my favorite expedition since being on island. Garrett and I enjoy fresh water so much more than ocean water. It was so refreshing and amazing, so nice not to feel gross after swimming and playing in the water.

Koji, short for Kojiro, looking all cute!

In the middle of November we got a dog! Koji is three years old, is a picky eater, loves to cuddle, but is also an escape artist. He's been adopted a few times, but none lasted more than a week. We think they adopted him, but left him by himself all day while at work. We have found that he does not like being alone in the least. I'm home with him most of the time, but when we do leave, we put him in a kennel. We left him out a couple times on his own because he was tearing up the kennel, but one time we weren't as careful putting things away to take away temptation and he chewed up our Ethernet cable and the rope on the bottom of our blinds on our back door and the weight on the moving cord. So we zip tied the bottom of the kennel so the tray can't be slid out, and took out the pad, and he's been doing pretty well, even if he still doesn't like it. He hasn't gone potty in our house once, and only has tried to run off one time. He's a little more timid around Garrett (especially when he's in uniform) but, he still cuddles up to us, jumps up on our bed at night, and seems to genuinely be starting to trust us. He doesn't play with toys, which is a little sad, but we were told if we play with the toys ourselves we can teach him how to play with them and he might start, even if it takes a few months. We love our dog, and are doing our best to help him to know that we aren't just going to let him get away and that we are in this for the long haul.

Thanksgiving was a small affair, with just Daniel, Garrett, and I. It was sort of a last minute decision to have it at our house. We deep fried a turkey, and only had a few basics for sides. I just wasn't into the spirit much this year. Maybe it was partially being my first Thanksgiving making things on my own, not having all of my kitchen accessories, or that it was last minute and I didn't feel like fighting the crowds at the commissary to get the groceries I needed. Other than the gravy turning out awful and having to make package gravy last minute; and burning the rolls because I was concentrating on trying to fix the gravy, it was a great day spent with Daniel and Garrett. We had fun and enjoyed our time together. 

We finally got our house goods! Garrett was given the day off to help get our stuff in order. They came around 0830 and probably had all our things in in about 10 trips... It was a very short move in. Garrett and I were able to unpack and set up pretty much everything that day. I only saved unpacking our clothes and our office stuff. Clothes, because we bought a dresser, but I want to refinish it and feel it would be silly to put stuff in it just to empty it in the next week or so. We've rented a drill to drill holes into our cement walls to put pictures up and this is just a preview of a finished wall(the Bowen sign is temporarily there). 

Well, we love you and wish you the best as we shift into the winter season.